Camcorder lighting: On-Camera Lights
Whether you're trying to improve an otherwise impossibly dark shot or add a little pop to an adequately lit scene, an on-camera light is a critical tool.
January. It's cold, the air is crisp, and the sun is a tiny bright speck of light in the southern sky. This pretty much describes the quality of an on-camera light used by an untrained operator. It is a crisp speck of light that shines right in the middle of your subject's face, casting harsh shadows and freezing the expressions onto your videotape to be recorded for the generations. Now, this harsh reality does not have to be. As we know, January too will pass. By using some of the suggestions and tips in this column, you will be able to turn what can be a cold, nasty light into a warm, soft integral tool in your lighting toolkit.
Why Use Them?
As with the month of January, on-camera lights do have a purpose. January sends us snow for skiing, ice that then melts to become life-giving water in the spring, and cold harsh weather to give us an even better reason to snuggle up in our warm homes with our loved ones or play with our new video cameras that we got as a holiday present. On-camera lights give us the ability to shoot breaking stories in the middle of the night, follow the bride as she prepares for her wedding or record the grandparents as they launch into a story of days gone by. You can also use them as eye-lights to add sparkle to your subject's eyes when shooting outdoors with the sun as your backlight. In short, on-camera lights are always there when you need them to illuminate the scene. Wherever your camera goes, so does the light.
A Typical System
To understand how we can make on-camera lights more subject-friendly, we need to know a little more about them. On-camera light systems can range in price from no cost because they are built into your camera to well over the $1,500 professional models. The on-camera light system consists of three basic elements: the light, its mounting system and its power source.
The Light
On-camera lights are usually very small hard lights that throw an intense harsh light towards the subject you are shooting. The light itself can range from the type that is actually built into your camera housing, to an inexpensive spotlight mounted in the accessory shoe on top of your camera, to a fairly expensive system that includes multiple lighting heads with different powers of light, a dimming system, spot to flood adjustment, diffusion panels and color correction. In the end, the more you use your on-camera light, the more you should probably budget for this handy tool.
When looking at what kind of on-camera light you should buy, you need to think about what you use it for. Small, intense lights can come in handy when you need to supplement the light on your talent's face when shooting those interviews on the bright ski slopes. The bright hard light reduces the shadows on their face and adds a sparkle to their eyes. The majority of reasonably priced, on-camera lights have a color temperature of 3200K, equivalent to indoor light. When you are shooting outdoors, you'll want to consider a blue gel or related accessory to get a more balanced lighting environment. Unless, of course, you're shooting at night (in complete absence of light), then your on-camera light won't need to mix with any other lights. If you shoot interviews or work with reporters, you will need a light that is intense enough to be a key light, yet one you can diffuse to soften shadows on the reporter's face. Reporters need a light that will fill their faces without blinding them while they look into the camera and tell the story of the hour.
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